RTÉ’S FORMER CHIEF Financial Officer has said he was “not informed” about a meeting where it was agreed that RTÉ would underwrite Ryan Tubridy’s Renault sponsorship deal.
In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee, former CFO Richard Collins said he was not made aware that the meeting was happening or updated about the outcome of it.
RTÉ came under intense scrutiny in the summer when it revealed that it under-reported Tubridy’s earnings, who worked for the broadcaster on radio and television.
The PAC has been previously told that former Director General Dee Forbes struck a verbal agreement with Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly at a meeting in May 2020 to say that RTÉ would underwrite a sponsorship deal with car company Renault.
In July, it was announced that Collins, who appeared before the Oireachtas Committee hearings in the wake of the controversy, was among the five members of the former RTÉ Executive Board that had been stood down.
He resigned from RTÉ in October.
In the new letter, dated 1 December, Collins wrote: “I was unaware that the meeting on 7 May 2020 had happened. I was not informed that this meeting had been scheduled nor was I updated on what was agreed at the meeting. I only became aware of this meeting at the same time that it became public knowledge in July 2023.”
“On the 30th April, i.e., a week before the meeting in question, I attended a meeting with the Director General (Dee Forbes), the Director of Content (Jim Jennings) and the In-house Solicitor (Trish Whelan),” Collins outlined.
“At this meeting the question of whether an indemnity could be given to Ryan Tubridy was discussed. The discussion concluded with the Director General confirming that ‘we can’t give a cast iron indemnity’ to Mr Tubridy. As far as I was concerned that was the final decision and the agreed company policy on the matter,” he said.
He said that he could “only speculate” about why he was not updated.
“I was neither informed that the meeting had taken place nor what was agreed at it, nor was any information conveyed to me about what was discussed or any other elements of this agreement.”
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